"Resist evil by using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount."
Yesterday, as I stood observing the intense energy of a room full of teens blowing off steam from school, it was hard to not draw the contrast to the empty room of five weeks ago. On that Thursday I had biked to work at Parachutes Teen Club and Resource Center (a drop-in Center for teens 13-18 years old). As I turned off the Campbell Creek bike trail and headed south on Lake Otis Parkway I was stopped by an Anchorage Police Department officer. The patrolman informed me that I didn't want to go that way because someone was shooting in the area. I quickly circumvented the danger zone to get to Parachutes (1), made a few phone calls, posted on Facebook and cancelled drop-in for the day so our youth would not be drawn into a dangerous situation.
That standoff, on August 10, closed a major street in Anchorage, brought a neighborhood to a crawl, and was the first of four times APD used the SWAT team in the week that followed. In the following weeks the newspaper reported on stabbings, violence at the cities homeless shelter and soup kitchen, and a man that was caged and tortured. A week later, the paper carried a story of a drive-by shooting - "Man injured in East Anchorage drive-by shooting" (2) - and another headline that declares, "With full leadership team in place, APD pledges focus on violence and drug crimes." (3) This is all happening with the backdrop of the record setting year of 2016 were 34 homicides occurred.
This week a headline of the newspaper read: "3 men killed in shooting at business as Anchorage homicides continue at record pace." (4) Reading further in the article one learns that the city has had 28 homicides so far in 2017 which puts the city above the pace from last year by three.
Many in the city have sought to lay the blame at the feet of gangs. For example, one ministry leader who stated in a meeting I attended last year that the entire increase in violence was gang related. Others have sought to define the violence as the sole possession of certain part(s) of town. A quick perusal of the facts (5) will clearly show that Anchorage is loaded with violence and that it can not be simply linked to one cause or area of town. Others have called for an increase in policing (full disclosure my wife works for APD). However, the blaming (or even scapegoating) and calls for increased policing are not the responses I have been thinking about lately.
The hand wringing, blaming, and calls for increased policing are the responses of many in the city - including the mayor it seems. (6) However, those responses are simple (even easy) reactions that fail to take any personal responsibility for our city or action to stem the tide of violence. Those words and attitudes are designed to remove ones self from the violence and lay it at the feet of others. In contrast to those responses, haven't seen the church community together (with a few small noted exceptions) to respond to the violence in the city. I have been wondering, How can I begin to address the violence in my city? How can the Church?
Some who read this will see no need for their own personal response to the violence because it does not directly effect them. But for me the violence in the city is personal. Not just because the murders in the city have effected those I know, but also because I believe the city is a mirror. Ron Ruthruff, in his book "Closer to the Edge: Walking with Jesus for the World's Sake" (2015) highlights John Rennie Short’s statement:
"They (cities) are a mirror of our societies, a part of our economy, an element of our environments. But above all else they are a measure of our ability to live with each other. When we examine our cities, we examine ourselves."
Ruthruff explains that the mirror the city provides gives us a reflected vision of the best and worst of ourselves and, in turn, the best and worst of our city and the world. So if my city is experiencing increased violence it is showing me something about myself and my role in the city - even if it is something I don't want to see.
Others, I am well aware, will immediately react that this is not a matter for the church to get involved in. The impulse to separate church and state runs deep in our culture. Added to that is a historical divide between those the see the role of the church on social issues as either something to be embraced fully or avoided completely. However, one only need to look at the activism by Christians on both sides of the LGBTQ rights issue in Anchorage to see that clearly the church can, and does on select matters, become involved in public issues. It seems to me that the issue of violence would be an issue that the followers of the Prince of Peace would be quick to stand against.
As I have thought about this issue and how I, and my community - the Christian community - has, or has not, responded a quote from Stanley Hauerwas keeps coming to mind. Writing about the Sermon on the Mount, and how it was viewed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Howard Yoder, Hauerwas writes,
Bonhoeffer and Yoder were pacifists, but…this description is inadequate. ‘Pacifism’ suggests a position that can be abstracted from what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Bonhoeffer and Yoder understand nonresistance to be the refusal to respond to evil in kind, but to resist evil by using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount."
(Stanley Hauerwas - Sermon on the Mount through the Centuries, p. 221).
While some will be hung up on the terms ‘pacifism’ or "nonresistance" (while worthy to explore, those discussions can happen some other time) I wonder what it would look like for me, and the Christian community in Anchorage, to respond to the violence in our city "using the weapons provided by the Sermon on the Mount." I am chiefly interested in what it would look like for the church to begin responding by praying.
What if every Christian prayed daily for the peace of our city?
What if each of the many churches in the city committed to pay every week in there service for the peace of the city?
What if people and churches began to gather to prayer together?
What if as each of us drove, or walked, or biked by the places we know violence has occurred that we prayed for the victims and the perpetrators?
Could we use this tool from the the Sermon on the Mount to resist the evil in our city?
Joel K
(1) For more info. on Parachutes go to: www.parachutesalaska.com.
(2) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2017/08/23/police-investigating-shooting-in-east-anchorage/
(3) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/08/23/apd-fills-out-leadership-team-amid-salary-boosts-pledges-focus-on-violence-and-drug-crimes/
(4) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2017/09/12/three-men-dead-in-anchorage-shooting-police-say/
(5) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2016/12/31/anchorages-deadly-year-with-34-homicide-victims-violence-hits-home/
(6) https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2017/09/13/anchorage-mayor-apologizes-for-remark-about-citys-safety-after-shooting/
